Although he wasn't that into comics in his childhood, actor Jerod Leto has found himself portraying a vampire-like superhuman in Marvel’s latest comic-turned movie "Morbius."

Leto says he would have happily stolen comic books as a child if he'd had the chance. It's perhaps fitting that someone playing the bloodthirsty antihero of Marvel thriller "Morbius" has a hint of a bad attitude. And yet comic books weren't of much interest to the latest lead actor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

"I know comics were pretty cheap, but we didn't have extra money to buy things like that," Leto tells Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) ahead of the film's cinema release. "I suppose I would have stolen them if there was a good comic book store close. But there wasn't."

His enthusiasm for comic books before "Morbius" was limited, he admits. "I did get a box of comics given to me by a family friend, to me and my brother and we kind of devoured them," Leto recalls.

"But it was a short period of time and it didn't really stick." Instead, Leto had a strong interest in Greek mythology as a child.

As an adult, however, comics are catching up on him, he says. In the latest addition to the Marvel universe, Leto plays the eponymous "Morbius" – a doctor who suffers from a rare blood disease and transforms into a vampire-like antihero while seeking a cure.

He says his character lives in the space "between good and evil and he has to battle his primal impulses."

"I think that is a compelling part of the story, that battle between good and evil, the Jekyll-and-Hyde element."

Even though he's not a comic book fan, Leto still appreciates the dream of having superpowers.

"I like Mobius' power of echolocation, the fact that he can see with sound." It's an interesting and unique ability, Leto says – but not Leto's own dream superpower.

That would be flying, if he got to pick. "Where would I fly? All over the world," Leto says. "But the problem is that you have to be pretty strong, because if you are going a couple hundred miles per hour and you hit a bug, man it will take your teeth out."

At least on the big screen, Leto can now live out the superhero dream. "Morbius" hits cinemas internationally at the end of March and start of April.

What appeals to Leto most about his lead role is that he is the first actor to get to play Morbius.

"One of the reasons I made this film was because this character has never been on the screen before," says the actor, who won an Oscar for his supporting role as a trans woman with AIDS in the 2014 drama "Dallas Buyers Club."

"I mean, it is a chance to have some ownership and to really develop this character."